Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Growing up in Pennsylvania, and only an hour or so away from the New Jersey coast, we grew up with commercials for an all-season Haunted Attraction called Brigantine Castle. Click here to watch one. As kids, we found the commercials incredibly spooky, and the notion of actually visiting the Castle downright terrifying. Needless to say, growing up in a house where horror wasn't appreciated, my parents never took the kids to see Brigantine. And then it closed. I never bothered to look up any sites which might be preserving its memories - until today.

Click below for the site (and be sure to check out the "Sounds" page):

There's something incredibly charming about the thought of salty sea air and a boardwalk Spookhouse.

I grew up in Philly. I finally got a chance (as a young kid) to go the night that Elvis died. True story. My cousins were renting in Ocean City or somewhere (we always stayed in Wildwood Crest) and we drove up and I got to go. The memory is entwined with everyone talking about Elvis (whom I didn't really know much or care much about at that age). I always loved the boardwalk in Wildwood -- especially the haunted houses. My kids today would LOVE them. ALAS, liability seems to have made them mostly a thing of the past in Jersey? Although in the last two years one of the piers opened a ghost ship attraction. My husband took our 12 year old last August. My 9 year old couldn't quite work up the courage and he now regrets it. :)

I only remember the commercials as well as my parents never seemed to think to take me to them. I wrote about Brigantine Castle a while back, along with the Haunted Mansion in Long Branch, Haunted Castle at Six Flags, and Castle Dracula:

http://devilseve.blogspot.com/2010/05/new-jerseys-haunted-70s.html

New Jersey had a great haunted history. Too bad they're only distant memories now.